The idea of a Harper visit to Turkey is fraught with domestic and foreign policy sensitivities due to decisions dating back to Mr. Harper&#8217;s time as official Opposition leader.

During that period he embraced the politically active Armenian-Canadian community&#8217;s claim that atrocities committed against their community in Ottoman Turkey starting in 1915 constituted genocide.

Plenty of politicians around the world have responded to the Armenian lobby effort, resulting in some 20 legislatures in various countries passing motions recognizing that genocide took place. Among them was the Canadian Senate, in 2002, and the House of Commons two years later.

But, according to Turkey, Canada&#8217;s Conservative government is the only one in the world to officially embrace the genocide narrative as official government policy.

Turkey objected furiously in 2006 when Mr. Harper formally stated the new policy, but some diplomats said a thaw had started to develop prior to the 2011 election campaign.

In April of 2010, for instance, Mr. Harper issued no statement to the general public to mark the anniversary of the tragedy. And recent high-level visits include a 2009 trip to Turkey by Lawrence Cannon, then minister of foreign affairs, and another last year by Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

Furthermore, Export Development Canada has just announced the opening of a regional office in Istanbul to help Canadian exporters break into the relatively thriving regional market, and there have been preliminary talks on possible free trade negotiations.

But then Mr. Harper issued an election campaign statement on the genocide, almost identical to the 2006 declaration, that got almost no mainstream media coverage in Canada but deeply angered Turkey.

Mr. Harper&#8217;s &#8220;wrong and unfair&#8221; judgment was based on &#8220;one-sided information&#8221; that came after a number of initiatives to improve relations, said an April 27 statement from the Turkish foreign ministry.

The government&#8217;s position was also &#8220;based on narrow political calculations&#8221; and &#8220;dealt a blow to these efforts,&#8221; the statement declared.

Rafet Akgunay, Turkey&#8217;s ambassador to Canada and a former senior foreign policy adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said there has never been a discussion initiated by either government regarding a possible Harper visit.

Turkey will never take blame for what happened. Anyway, now they are busy killing Syrians who are fleeing the Assad government, actually I think we should be doing more to help Syrians get rid of Assad instead of worrying about Libya. Assad was building an alliance with Iran and Turkey, Turkey is up to no good and Harper should not go there while Turkey is working with Iran.

Turkey will never take blame for what happened. Anyway, now they are busy killing Syrians who are fleeing the Assad government, actually I think we should be doing more to help Syrians get rid of Assad instead of worrying about Libya. Assad was building an alliance with Iran and Turkey, Turkey is up to no good and Harper should not go there while Turkey is working with Iran.

The idea of a Harper visit to Turkey is fraught with domestic and foreign policy sensitivities due to decisions dating back to Mr. Harpers time as official Opposition leader.

During that period he embraced the politically active Armenian-Canadian communitys claim that atrocities committed against their community in Ottoman Turkey starting in 1915 constituted genocide.

Plenty of politicians around the world have responded to the Armenian lobby effort, resulting in some 20 legislatures in various countries passing motions recognizing that genocide took place. Among them was the Canadian Senate, in 2002, and the House of Commons two years later.

But, according to Turkey, Canadas Conservative government is the only one in the world to officially embrace the genocide narrative as official government policy.

Turkey objected furiously in 2006 when Mr. Harper formally stated the new policy, but some diplomats said a thaw had started to develop prior to the 2011 election campaign.

In April of 2010, for instance, Mr. Harper issued no statement to the general public to mark the anniversary of the tragedy. And recent high-level visits include a 2009 trip to Turkey by Lawrence Cannon, then minister of foreign affairs, and another last year by Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

Furthermore, Export Development Canada has just announced the opening of a regional office in Istanbul to help Canadian exporters break into the relatively thriving regional market, and there have been preliminary talks on possible free trade negotiations.

But then Mr. Harper issued an election campaign statement on the genocide, almost identical to the 2006 declaration, that got almost no mainstream media coverage in Canada but deeply angered Turkey.

Mr. Harpers wrong and unfair judgment was based on one-sided information that came after a number of initiatives to improve relations, said an April 27 statement from the Turkish foreign ministry.

The governments position was also based on narrow political calculations and dealt a blow to these efforts, the statement declared.

Rafet Akgunay, Turkeys ambassador to Canada and a former senior foreign policy adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said there has never been a discussion initiated by either government regarding a possible Harper visit.

Turkey will never take blame for what happened. Anyway, now they are busy killing Syrians who are fleeing the Assad government, actually I think we should be doing more to help Syrians get rid of Assad instead of worrying about Libya. Assad was building an alliance with Iran and Turkey, Turkey is up to no good and Harper should not go there while Turkey is working with Iran.

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Did you read more than the first few lines of the OP?

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I guess I was answering the question of what Harper should do, not what he will do, what's the problem?

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